Identity & Access Management with Microsoft EMS

It may seem like an obvious question, but do you know who has access to your organisation’s most valuable data?

You may be surprised by the answer. Many companies are still in the dark as to which employees have privileged access to which resources – or even which cloud services are used to store their data – leaving them vulnerable to cyber-attacks, or loss of critical data.

The vast majority of security breaches take place when attackers gain access to an environment by stealing a user’s identity, and criminals have become increasingly effective at leveraging third party breaches, and using sophisticated phishing attacks. Once an attacker gains access to even a low privileged user account, it is relatively straightforward for them to gain access to important company resources.

However, many organisations’ failure to secure their own data was highlighted by a recent survey, which found 63 percent of businesses rate themselves as “only average or below” when it comes to their ability to provide secure and appropriate access to privileged accounts.

But it’s not just small or mid-sized business that fail to implement secure access strategies across their organisations; some of the world’s biggest brands have fallen victim to a breach of privileged access, including the likes of Target and JPMorgan.

That’s why having an integrated Identity & Access Management (IAM) solution as part of your security strategy has never been more important.

The solution helps to secure access at the “front door” of your organisation’s IT estate, cutting across devices, applications, services and data.

Azure Active Directory Identity Protection

Azure Active Directory Identity Protection is a feature of the Azure AD Premium P2 edition that provides you with a consolidated view into risks and potential vulnerabilities affecting your organisation.

Identity Protection uses adaptive machine learning algorithms and heuristics to detect anomalies that may indicate that an identity has been compromised. It then alerts you to potential threats, enabling you to investigate and take appropriate action.

Azure AD Privileged Identity Management

Organisations want to minimise the number of people who have access to secure information or resources, because that reduces the chance of a malicious attacker getting access to sensitive company data. However, users still need to be able to perform their job in Azure, Office 365 or any of the thousands of SaaS apps available today.

With Azure Active Directory (AD) Privileged Identity Management, you can manage, control, and monitor access within your organisation. This includes access to resources in Azure AD and other Microsoft online services like Office 365 or Microsoft Intune.

“Organisations of all sizes are embracing Digital Transformation. This new era will see employees interacting and collaborating over multiple devices and applications, both in and out of the cloud. So the need to secure access to privileged data has never been more important,” comments Michael Frisby, Managing Director of Cobweb. “Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) delivers identity-driven security that won’t slow down your business transformation or employee productivity.”

Cobweb can help assess your needs around identity, mobile management and security and ensure you deploy the right solution across your devices and applications. Furthermore, we will work with you to further develop your user and data management solution.